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Gaming Couch Potato

Tuesday, 1 August 2017

REVIEW: Demetrios The Big Cynical Adventure for Xbox One

Synopsis:
Demetrios is a quirky adventure game packed with tons of humour!

Bjorn Thonen, a slob of an antique dealer living in Paris, is robbed one night after coming home drunk. Forced to conduct his own investigation with the help of his neighbour Sandra, he ends up involved in a murky, mysterious affair. Will these unlikely heroes be able to rise up and discover ancient secrets?

Review: By Jon Donnis
Originally released on Steam and then PS Vita, Demetrios is a self proclaimed "Quirky" adventure game created by Fabrice Breton, and one look at the credits and you realise that Fabrice pretty much made the entire game himself, which is really impressive in this day and age. Well now the game has been ported to the big 2 consoles, that being Xbox One and PS4, and I got my hands on it a week before release, because, you know, I am special. As a man in my mid to late 30's, this is the kind of point and click adventure game I grew up on, back in the days of the Atari ST and Amiga. Where as kids of this generation will always prefer the instant gratification of blowing someones head off, I much prefer a little bit of work in a game before I get such gratification, well that or making my character put his fingers in an electrical outlet.

Unlike many other games, dying in this game is actually something you want to do every so often, as collecting the "game over" screens is very much part of the game, as is collecting cookies. Starting to sound quirky enough for you yet?

When you first start the game you get to choose your level of "toilet humour", of course I chose the highest setting. Although the game does have a fair amount of toilet humour, it also has quite a decent story, and although the game won't take you very long to complete, (8-12 Hours) there is an instant urge to play it again to see if you can find all the hidden cookies (3 hidden in every different screen/location) as well as find out all the different ways you can die. But that is only one part of the game, at the heart of it you are trying to solve a crime.

Bjorn is the main character you control, and it is him who has been robbed, he teams up with his neighbour Sandra, and they end up travelling to various locations looking for clues, and seemingly Bjorn gets into more trouble the more he investigates.

You will examine the screen and click on various items to learn more, you have an inventory whereby you can use and combine items you have collected to hopefully solve a puzzle. There are countless people to talk to, mini games to play, and more. So if you want to get through this game quick you can just quickly click through conversations, and get to the next puzzle, but by doing that you are really missing the hard work put in. This is a funny game, if you rush through it, then you are wasting the experience. And if you get stuck, then you can eat a cookie and you get a hint, bit like the coin system in the Professor Layton games.

And once you do finish the game, there is a nice little "extras" link on the main page, whereby you can unlock songs from the game, as well as exclusive artwork.

I understand this game wont be for everyone, but very few games ever fill that requirement. This is a classic point and click adventure game, an "old school" type game, that me and my friends loved in the late 80's/early 90's. If you are old enough to remember those games and you like the odd vomit joke, then you will love this game. Maybe this game wont appeal to younger gamers, but to people my age I think it is perfectly placed.

I give this game a solid 8/10

I will be going back and trying to find all the cookies and game over screens. In fact I am going to do that right now!

Available digitally on PlayStation 4 & Xbox One in North America and Europe!
PSN on August 1st, 2017
Xbox Live on August 2nd, 2017
Just search for it in your Xbox store.